It should be noted that the 1300th anniversary of the Dede Gorgud epic was remarkably celebrated dy all the world as an important event in the history of culture. Azerbaijan Republic State Jubilee Commission in association with UNESCO, TURKSOY and Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences put forward proposals and appropriatae decisions with regard to celebrating the 1300th anniversary of “Kitabi Dede Gorgud”, a number of meetings, symposiums, international and national scientific conferences dedicated to the 1300th anniversary have been held in various countries. As early as in December 1997 the 1300th Kitabi Dede Gorgud Anniversary Interulus Conference organized in partnership with the World Epic Studies Center named after Albert Lord Beyts (USA) and its branch in St. Petersburg (Russia) and the Literature Insrtitute in Istanbul jointly with the Institute of Literature at Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences successfully held an International “Dede Gorgud” Colloquium.

In 1999 28 items of scientific and artistic books were published in Azerbaijan including the improved version of Dede Gorgud text and Dede Gorgud Encyclopedia Events dedicated to the 1300th anniversary celebration of “Kitabi Dede Gorgud” continued to take place also in France, Germany, Turkey, Iran, Kirgizistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan. Iran, Turkey and Azerbaijan has jointly run a scientific forum on the subject of the Iraq-Turkmen Folklore at the Contemporary Stage A conclusive meeting took place on April 14-16 200 in Baku. The leaders of Turkic nations - presidents took pert in the event. The participation of about 50 scholars at the symposium and more than 200 scholars altogether in different forums and symposiums un connection with the jubilee has demonstrated the world-wide cultural significance and proved once again that Gorgud who appeared 1300 years ago at the time of separated civilizations and played a historic role in the Islamic – Turkic renaissance, continue to implement his humanistic mission in the process of integration between civilization of the East and West, South and North.

Z. Kuluzade.

“KITABI DEDE GORGURD” IN THE CONTEXT OF ISSUES RAISED BY THE EASTERN PHILOSOPHY

This article argues the issue of the journal to philosophic and cultural aspects of epic studies and particularly the epic “Kitabi Dede Gorgud”, as a phenomenon of culture which represent the information about the language, ethno - genetic and socio- cultural development, including the religion and mentality of the region inhabited by the Turkic nations and which have played a significant role in the social culture formation of a number of Turkic nations, of subsequent centuries.

With the emphasis to the great value of existing research results in this region, the article addresses a number of problems, the resolution of which might have a scientific interest in the future, namely:

1. Broadening the research which include structural and typological research of ethnos with the orientation to a relative unification of the concept, methodology, categories database and the identification of valuable criteria of the epic studies.

2. Defining the time of the epics creation and recording including “Kitabi Dede Gorgud”, based on a complex analysis of the socio - cultural environment.

3. The use of “Kitabi Dede Gorgud”, along with other epics of the Turkic nations for the reconstruction of the nomadic civilizations objective picture, the enlightening of historic roots and contemporary mentality of the Turkic nations, the identification of the evolution of the Turkic nations world outlook concepts and religious beliefs in particular, as well as the identification of the philosophic basis of shamanism.

The article points out the prevalence of a realistic method against romanticism and the romantic exaltations of a number of researchers in their highlighting the realities of the Oguzs social life reflected in the epic, their relationships in society, family, etc. that requires a critical revision of the existing stereotypes in this area.

I.Veliyev.

RATIONALISM IN MYTHOLOGICAL THOUGHT:

IMMORTALITY OF GILGAMESH – DEDE GORGUD

The issue of immortality is notable for its universality. The fear of death and pursuit of deliverance from it has faced the humanity since the time immemorial. The intellect has always played a distinctive role in this pursuit. This has been reflected in folklore, particularly in myths as well as in the religions of different nations and times. It is not by coincidence that the route to the tree of life, tree of immortality lied through the tasting of fruits of the cognition tree by the human. And it is also not by coincidence that in the epics about Gilgamesh and Dede Gorgud the pursuit of immortality is connected with the wisdom of the omniscient Gilgamesh and the everybody preaching Dede Gorgud.

The article is concerned with thoughts about the human, world, death and immortality in a mythological thought, and particularly in the world outlook conception of the Turkic mythology. The latter is distinguished by the belief that the human descend from heaven and its soul is bound to return to heaven after death. Presumably, that is why music including playing a “gopuz” which, according to the belief reflected in folklore, led in the heaven realm of spirits, was considered as means of achieving immortality while living on earth and death could not approach the played.

According to the Turkic mythology the universe is threefold: heaven, earth and underground. Having died, a human is divided into three parts: the spirit gains immortality in heaven, the posterity, deeds and property are abandoned on earth, and the body is committed to earth. However, the presented system of belief did not satisfy the human, who sought rational ways to immortality while living on earth. The main character of the “Epic about Gilgamesh”, Utnapishti who achieves immortality, is depicted on a remote island in the midst of the sea. Dede Gorgud having decided to escape death also settled on an island. The prophet Khizr managed to escape death with the help of horses swimming in the water. That is immortality on earth was most frequently associated with water as a life-giving origin. Another way of escaping death in the folklore of the past was the reassigning of death to the other. Hence there are sayings: “may all you misfortunes go to me”, or “cunning attempt to cheat it”. Thus in “The Cheated Stars” by M.F. Akhundov death, predestined by heaven and stars in realation to the ruling Shah becomes the destiny of the figurehead Shah.

In other words the human has at all times used his intellect in pursuit of gaining immortality on earth.

Rahman Badalov

THE TRUTH AND FICTION OF THE HEROIC EPIC

In the given article a philosophic and cultural model of the Dede Gorgud image, the legendary author of the epic “Kitabi Dede Gorgut”, is presented.

The article is formally divided into three parts. The applied research methodology is considered in the first part. It emphasizes that the proposed model can be termed as mind-conceivable, the correctness of which is identified by the multi-stage nature of the “Kitabi” text as well as the intra-scientific reflection of the humanities knowledge that sanction the possibility of mind-conceivable productive schemes.

The second part which makes up the bulk of the article addresses the description of the proposed model of Dede Gorgud.

In the image of Dede Gorgud one can distinguish thee stages which find their identity in the figure of Dede ( the forefather ), the wise preceptor of the Oguz tribes.

The first stage traces back to the image of the patron of archaic rituals. The way of interrelationship regulation of the people and the nature and to a broader extent, the cosmos is associated with these rituals in a mythological sense. Speaking to the mountain, water, stone, tree, wolf, dwelling in “Kitabi Dede Gorgut” is not merely a poetic device, but a ritual consecration of the Oguz myths in their relation to the nature. Within this consecrated cosmos Dede Gorgud performs the function of the initiation patron upgrading. Oguz youngsters to heroes. In this particular sense the christening by Gorgud can be considered as the transcendental initiation.

The second stage is associated with the so-called heroic age people consciousness perceives the necessity of defending its consecrated cosmos (its myth) from those who was not the bearer of this myth. In this particular sense Gorgud becomes a bearer of the heroic memory of the past, i.e. of those ethnic ancestors (original and real Oguz people), who defeated foreigners and heterodoxies in battles. Gorgud initially appears in order to christen the hero a name, and then, in order to preserve the tale about the heroic deed of a concrete Hero-Oguz, personifying the unity of all the Oguz tribes. In this sense, The heroic past, the custodian of which is Gorgud, starts its real time count and particularly “heroic tale”, maintaining its mythological hub.

The third stage is associated with the figure of Dede Gorgud, who takes the part of Dede Ozan, an epic artist-storyteller, creating a literal artistic text and relaying it to private epic storytellers – ozans, who are capable of its enduring replication.

Perhaps, apart from the action of Dede Gorgud, the record of the text by “kitabs” remains with its glorification as Sacred Book (Kitabi), in compliance with the high status of a book in the Moslem tradition.

In the epilogue, it emphasizes the dynamic of the “Kitabi Dede Gorgud” in the history of national culture by which the multitude of approaches and interpretations of the relic is identified.

A.Rzayev

STATE, POLITICAL AND LEGISLATION ISSUES IN

THE “KITABI DEDE GORGUD” EPIC

It is pointed out in the article political and legal concepts of all ancient nations and the Azerbaijan nation alike did not emerge spontaneously but were being formed based on existing customs and traditions. It can be assumed that customs were accepted by every member of the community as legal norms before their codification.

Ancient political and legal concepts and norms and rules of personal conduct of the Turkic nations including the Azerbaijan nation are reflected in the “Kitabi Dede Gorgud” epic.

The epic reflects the emergence and development of tribes in the form of military-defensive establishments, the centralization of state, the unification of the state structure and other issues.

According to “Kitabi Dede Gorgud” the responsibilities of rulers were to defend its territory, regulate community life, protect the dignity and honor of the nation, and maintain justice.

According to the epic, the principles defining the status of family, tribe and community and norms of personal conduct accepted as legal forms regulating responsibilities and relationships of the tribe members were composed of the following to be loyal to the motherland, consecrate the mother, to be fair, to revenge in return for injury inflicted to any member of the tribe, and at the sane time be merciful towards people (especially servants, handicapped, and poor), etc.

Consequently, the “Kitabi Dede Gorgud” epic represents a great scientific significance as a historic relic in terms of social philosophy studies revealing state, political and legal issues of the Turkic nations and early middle ages.

A. Shukurov

NOMADIC CULTURE (SOME ISSUES TO BE DISCUSSED)

In the course of history nomadic life was considered in the research literature as a phenomenon standing aside the civilization. This issue, let alone some brief articles, has not been addressed in the Azerbaijan research literature.

The facts proved again that nomadic culture is not inferior to the culture of settled life. Nomads remarkably outran settled tribes in a number of fields (especially in the Military Art, clothes and other areas).

Nomads were the first in the world history to introduce the social distribution of labor as opposed to farming tribes. Nomads made up notable pages of the human history with their living under heroic code and having specific concepts and mode of life. The have destroyed khanates and provoked the establishment of new khanates. Nomads did an unprecedented favor to the development of economy by introducing money as means of trade transactions.

The article is concerned with some issues related to the Turkic history and literature including nomadic and mentality through the profound study of available research literature.

First of all the article expresses its attitude to nomadic culture of the Turkic share of history as one of the significant periods of the world civilization development and its place and originality in the history of the Turkic nations (synthesis of nomadic and settled urban civilizations in the Turkic world), its division into periods and system of values as well as its revelation in historic and scientific literature. At the same time with reference to historic materials and Turkic epics the author discusses such values as heroism and aristocracy pertaining to the mentality of nomadic Turks within the first centuries of the middle ages and their monotheistic religious outlook and attitude to Islam. The author have attempted to support its position based logical and historic evidence.

T. Melikli

“KITABI DEDE GORGUD” AND THE FORMATION

OF AN ARTISTIC THOUGHT OF TURKS-OGUZES

As is pointedout in the article, “Kitabi Dede Gorgud” is the most ancient and unique relic of the Turks, which exerted a great influence on the formation and further development of an artistic thought and culture pertaining to the posteriors of the Oguz-Azeri Turks, Turkmens and Turkish.

The article considers the stages of national culture development, cultural and artistic systems attributed to these stages, the evolution and succession in a cultural process.

The author formally divides the cultural tradition of Turks into three periods: ancient, early classical, classical and gives general characteristics of each period.

The emergence of “Kitabi Dede Gorgud” which possesses features of folklore and written literature is dated back to the beginning of the early classical period in the article.

12 oguzname-tales of the epic distinctly demonstrate the movement from folklore to written literature. They all simultaneously reveal the process of formation of an oguzes artistic image, as in integral structure and from this viewpoint the epic arises a great scientific interest.

In the article the emphasis has been made on the difference between composition devices used in verses of the epic and illiteralte verse emerging on the basis of innate rules of thr Turkic language: the main composition device here is parallelism which is used in the epic deliberately enough.

The author expounds the connection of versification in the epic with the ancient Turkic tradition by means of typological comparison of fragments from “Kitabi Dede Gorgud” with a lyric work by Aprin Chor Tigin, the first ancient Turkic poet known to us and with fragments from the XX th century works of Suleyman Ragimov and Yashar Kemal.

The place of the epic in the Azerbaijan literature is considered based on arguments.

From the editorial staff. In the definition system of the Turkic cultural tradition by periods the mistaken attribution of the ancient period VI-VI th century AD originates from stereotypes found in the research literature that associate the history of ancient Turks with the Gok-Turk empire. The unavailability of written relics dated before VI th century in our possession should not necessarily witness to their absolute absence. On the other hand in addition to written relic the history can also be identified by means of other factors. Of course, we cannot date back the emergence of the Turk myths, legends and other pieces of folklore relics to VI-VII th century.

Y.Kalafat

TURKIC GREAT MEN AND THEIR DEEDS IN THE

ANATOLIA GEOGRAPHY OF DEDE GORGUD.

The world-wide known epic “Dede Gorgud” is the relic of Turkic and adjacent nations.

The toponymies and hydronymies of the epic are embraced by political boundaries of several Turkic states.

The spiritual connection of famous Turkic saints with Dede Gorgud and their role in the formation of a Turkic way of thinking is traced bask in the article.

The author reveals the regions where the great saint men of Anatolia lived and discusses their deeds in a laconic style. This gives the author the ground for considering them as those emerging on the fundament of the Turkic way of thinking that gave birth to them and Dede Gorgud as well as for writing about Dede Gorgud in the Turkic way of thinking. In the article the author writes about the determining essential features of the Turkic way of thinking with reference to the mode of life and sayings of famous saint men from 64 regions of Anatolia.

Those men were the spiritual leaders, personifying the faith and thoughts of their people, who would apply to them for help at the time of their life and after their life: they lit up both worlds with their own light.

As a result of their deeds and words they formed the connection between people as well as between the animate and inanimate nature. They were revered and were afraid of. The study of their figures is meant to help understand the essence of the nature of their predecessor, Dede Gorgud.

The conceptual question has been posed in the article with regard to the existence and peculiarities of the Turkic way thinking, which is defined by the human-wide parameters rather than purely ethnic ones.

Characteristic features of this thinking as is mentioned in the article are.

Specific world outlook of the saints directly connected with the mode of their life: the existence of their own values criteria as an indicator of the philosophy of their life: personal example of their moral behavior preceding the propagation of moral maxims.

Expressing new revelations, Turkic sages never completely and blindly rejected the preexisting truth and tried to combine everything, considered as true in the cultural tradition, with the new thoughts introduced.

In order to keep their maxims adequate to the level of the people perception they chose the most intelligible forms of statement, namely the Turkic language poem and the metre “hedja”.

The understanding of the moral value of religion is oriented to the wide use of the truth pertaining to the traditional religious beliefs and their combination with the new truth that was featured in the works of Ahmed Yasavi.

In accordance with the statement “intellectuals a.re the inheritors of the messengers”, the Turkic Dede and Baba are the inheritors of the main points of Dede Gorgud proposing the compliance of the preachers mode of life with the maxims propagated.

The article enumerates many geographic location of the great saint men s living and their names that might prove a fertile soil for further research of the issues addressed by the author.